Basketball On The Internet.

WHERE there is smoke ... NBL fans of South Dragons and South East Melbourne Magic can cross their fingers because the second license in Melbourne appears likely to see one name re-emerge.

My (e)mail is that under Fraser Neill's stewardship, the Magic group had the front-running but with Neill gone, NBL Chairman, Czar Nicholas the Marvelous, is looking more favorably at the return of the Dragons.

Also hearing that the Melbourne bid may NOT be ready to join Brisbane in the 2015-16 NBL season but that even with Brisbane coming in, the league may only have eight clubs.

Not being cryptic there. The whisper is pretty strong Queensland still will only have two clubs in 2015-16.

Brisbane will be one of them.

Neill publicly committed to that on several occasions, including at the 2014 Blitz in Brisbane and the NBL has not stepped away from his position, recognising it desperately needs representation in the state's capital city.

It is ready to part-fund the club itself, which makes me slap my forehead.

Why the NBL simply doesn't enlist the services of Brisbane's Mr Basketball, Brian Kerle, is a mystery to me.

Kerley knows everyone of relevance or consequence in Brisbane, understands the city and loves the game with a passion difficult to find in most modern-day administrators.

(Hang on. Maybe I just unwittingly worked out why the NBL hasn't enlisted him. They are unfamiliar with agenda-free selflessness and passion so it would have to be viewed with distrust.)

Kerle could put a club together and the NBL then would not have to pony up the money itself but that's a different story.

(And Townsville desperately needs its community to rally. That's all I'm saying.)

When the Dragons bowed out after winning the title in 2009, during the NBL's rockiest period which led to Basketball Australia taking control, losing a passionate part-owner such as Mark Cowan was a big loss to the game.

Cowan loved his club and indicated at the time he might consider a return "down the track".

My word is we are "down the track" and that any potential bid with which he is involved has a head start on the Magic.

The coach for the new Dragons?

Brian Goorjian would be the target, with Mark Worthington most likely lured across from Melbourne United to add a second face connected to the former franchise.

Both bids are committed to playing in the south-east corridor out of Melbourne, the heartland of Victorian basketball.

The story has legs. And if I am United, I might be feeling a little less cosy about now.